Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Part 1: Creating Your Profile 5 Chapter 1: Installing Instagram 7 Moving Instagram to the Launch Pad 8 Installing on a Computer 9 Installing on a Windows PC (sort of) 9 Installing on a Mac (sort of) 11 Installing on Instagram's Native Platform 13 Installing on an iPhone 13 Installing on an iPad 14 Instagram Has Android Covered, Too 15 No App? No Problem: Instagram Is on the Web 16 Starting to Gram Instantly 18 Starting Instagram on a computer 19 Starting Instagram on a mobile device 20 Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Profile 21 Professional Profile Practices 21 Choosing a name and username for your business 22 Choosing a profile photo that attracts customers 25 Writing a Bio That Draws in Followers 26 Deciding what information to include 26 Formatting your bio 28 Using a call to action to drive website traffic 29 Choosing a website link that encourages clicks 30 Taking Advantage of a Business Profile Upgrade 31 Connecting to a Facebook page 32 Navigating your business profile 33 Chapter 3: Hitting Your Target Audience 35 Organizing Your Marketing Goals and Roles 36 Assembling your Instagram team 36 Determining your brand voice 37 Envisioning your look 38 Gathering Post Ideas 41 Researching your competition 41 Determining post content 43 Creating a content calendar 44 Evaluating third-party scheduling and analytics platforms 46 Part 2: Creating Your Narrative 49 Chapter 4: Taking and Posting Great Photos 51 Taking Your Best Shot 52 Improving Your Best Shot 53 Applying a filter 53 Tweaking with the editing tools 55 Saving your changes (or not) 58 Enriching Your Photo 59 Describing your photo 59 It's good to have options 60 Posting Your Photos: Ta Da! 63 Uploading Photos from Your Camera Roll 63 Uploading Multiple Photos to One Post 65 Selecting multiple photos 65 Applying filters and adding photos 66 Editing photos individually 67 Adding information and sharing your photos 67 Chapter 5: Recording and Posting Great Videos 69 Recording Your Day 70 Filming with a smartphone or tablet 70 Recording multiple video clips 72 Deleting video clips 72 Checking out your video 73 Improving Your Video 73 Applying a filter 74 Changing the cover frame 74 Adding details 75 Posting Your Video 75 Uploading a Stored Video 76 Uploading Multiple Videos from an iPhone or iPad 77 Part 3: Planting Your Garden 79 Chapter 6: Commenting and Direct Messaging 81 Before You Share, Stop and Think 81 Sharing on Other Social Media Sites 82 Copying and pasting a link to another social network 83 Embedding your photo or video on a web page 83 Sending Photos and Videos Privately 86 Replying to a direct message by sending a photo 86 Starting a new conversation by sending a photo 87 Starting a new text conversation and adding a photo 88 Resuming a previous conversation 89 Garnering Comments 90 Including a caption 90 Mentioning your followers 90 Reviewing Your Comments 91 Deciding to respond or delete 92 Reporting Commenters When All Else Fails 94 Reporting a commenter 95 Blocking a commenter 96 Chapter 7: Finding People to Follow 97 Where Are My Peeps? 98 Finding your Facebook friends 98 Syncing your contact list 99 Finding New Friends 100 Exploring the Explore function 100 Searching the Search feature 101 Letting Instagram suggest users to you 102 Following Your Industry 103 Watching your competition 103 Getting noticed by big brands 104 Deciding Whom to Follow Back 106 Viewing and following your followers 106 Reciprocating a follow or not 107 Finding Your Insta-Tribe 108 Finding or creating a community you vibe with 108 Deciding whether Instagram pods are beneficial 110 Chapter 8: Wielding the Power of the Hashtag 113 Investigating Hashtags 113 Following Hashtag Best Practices 115 Placing hashtags so you don't annoy people 115 Knowing how many hashtags are best 116 Popular hashtags and when to use them 117 Storing hashtags for later 118 Tracking hashtag analytics 119 Researching the Right Hashtags 121 Checking out the competition 121 Picking up on related hashtags 123 Discovering what the cool kids are doing (influencer hashtags) 125 Creating a Branded Hashtag 126 Hashtag your promotion or contest 126 Gathering user-generated content 128 Part 4: Making Your Garden Grow 129 Chapter 9: Sharing with Instagram Stories 131 Checking Out Instagram Stories 132 Getting Started 133 Creating an Instagram Story in the app 133 Uploading a photo or video from your camera roll 135 Saving Your Story 136 Using Direct Messages to Send a Story 137 Determining the Best Content to Share 139 Talking to your audience 139 Providing before-and-after and series shots 139 Peeking behind the scenes 141 Showing your travels 141 Advertising Your Story 142 Chapter 10: Making Your Story More Fun 143 Creating Graphics for Stories 143 Adding Text and Username Tags 146 Drawing on Your Story 148 Stickers and Tags 149 Adding a Link to Your Website 151 Using Boomerang to Keep Fans Coming Back 152 Making Funny Faces with Face Filters 153 Using Instagram LIVE 154 Getting started with LIVE 155 Developing a game plan 156 Alerting your fans 157 Acknowledging LIVE followers 158 Saving and repurposing LIVE broadcasts 158 Chapter 11: Planning a Winning Ad 159 Selecting the Right Ad Type 159 Photo ad 161 Video ad 162 Carousel ad 162 Stories ad 163 Using an Effective Ad Strategy 164 Design requirements 164 Selecting your target audience 165 Choosing ad images wisely 166 A caption can speak (less than) 1,000 words 169 Chapter 12: Creating an Effective Instagram Ad 171 Using the Instagram Mobile App to Create an Ad 172 Using Facebook to Create an Ad 173 Creating a photo, video, or carousel ad in Ads Manager 174 Running an Instagram Stories ad in Ads Manager 178 Running an ad in Power Editor 179 Monitoring your Instagram ad 183 A/B Testing 183 Measuring Your Ad Results 185 Viewing Insights via Instagram 185 Viewing Insights via Facebook Ads Manager 187 Chapter 13: Creating a Winning Contest 189 Exploring the Benefits of Hosting Instagram Contests 189 Following the Rules and Restrictions for Running Contests 190 Listing the official contest rules 191 Releasing Instagram of any involvement 192 Planning a Successful Contest 192 Stating your contest goals 193 Choosing a prize 193 Establishing entry requirements 194 Defining the rules or conditions 195 Determining the contest's length 195 Figuring out the promotion schedule 195 Choosing a hashtag 195 Designing contest images 196 Crafting post captions for the contest 197 Deciding how winners will be chosen and notified 198 Outlining who will respond to contest engagement 198 Executing a Winning Contest 199 Following Up 200 Chapter 14: Connecting Your Marketing Dots 203 Incorporating Instagram in Your Marketing Mix 203 Connecting Instagram to Other Social Networks 204 Including Instagram on Your Website 206 Linking your website to your Instagram page 207 Allowing others to share your content via Instagram 208 Embedding your Instagram feed on your website 209 Promoting Instagram on Printed Materials 210 Incorporating Instagram into an Event or Promotion 211 Monitoring Your Instagram Stats 214 Using Instagram's native analytics 215 Best third-party apps for Instagram analytics 216 Part 5: Why Isn't This Working? 221 Chapter 15: Insta-Diagnosing Instagram 223 Installation Issues 223 Dealing with compatibility issues 224 Checking your space 225 Unfreezing an installation on your iPhone or iPad 227 Finding a missing app on your iPhone or iPad 227 Resolving issues on an Android device 227 Log-In Difficulties 227 Checking your username 228 Fixing password issues 228 Dealing with a disabled account 231 Finding Relief for Common Problems 231 Instagram won't share 231 Getting Instagram to notify you 233 Nothing Is Working . . . Now What? 234 Reporting a problem on your iPhone or iPad 234 Reporting a problem on your Android smartphone or tablet 235 Getting Rid of Error Messages 235 Can't add a comment 236 Can't delete comments 236 Can't refresh feed 237 Can't follow anyone else 237 Chapter 16: Insta-Help Is on the Way 239 Taking Advantage of Instagram's Help 239 Accessing Help Center 240 Visiting Privacy and Safety Center 242 Viewing Instagram Business web pages 243 Tapping Social Media 244 Sending a message on Facebook 245 Tweeting and being tweeted 245 Reading the Instagram blog 246 Visiting the Instagram Business blog 248 Joining a Community 249 Joining other Instagrammers in an InstaMeet 249 Starting an InstaMeet 250 Visiting Reddit and Topix 251 Part 6: The Part of Tens 255 Chapter 17: Ten Brands Killing It on Instagram 257 GoPro 257 Yellowillow 258 Sugarandcloth 259 RPMItalian 259 EmilyJoyRosen 260 TheLoveBombCo 260 The.Book.Report 261 LaJollaMom 261 TSA 262 GeneralElectric 263 Chapter 18: Ten Places to Find Inspiration 265 Investigate the Explore Page 265 Review Hashtag Searches Related to Your Brand 266 Spy on Your Competitors 268 Get Inspiration from Local Businesses 268 Check Out Your Favorite Products 269 Look to Photographers 270 Get Inspired by Bloggers 271 Find Big Brands That Are Being Creative 272 Learn from Instagram and Marketing Experts 272 Follow the Instagram for Business Account 273 Index 275